1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing-and-embossing composite apparatus, a controlling method for a printing-and-embossing composite apparatus, and a program, for printing ink characters and embossing braille characters on the same process sheet.
2. Related Art
A known braille label is of a type in which braille characters recognizable by visually-impaired persons and ink characters recognizable by visually-normal persons are arranged side by side or overlapped with each other on the same process sheet (e.g., tape) in such a manner that they are recognizable by both visually-impaired and visually-normal persons. Reference is made to JP-A-10-275206 as an example of related art. Furthermore, a known information processing apparatus is of a type which simultaneously performs an ink-character printing and a braille embossing so as to form the above-described braille label. Reference is made to JP-A-2001-88358 as an example of related art.
Meanwhile, braille characters are recognized by touch-reading and thus not colored, whereas ink characters are visually recognized. Therefore, even if braille characters and ink characters are overlapped with each other, both can be recognized as a rule. Irrespective of the arrangement of braille characters, editing of ink characters is performed based on the premise that the ink characters can be recognized. However, when braille characters are overlappingly arranged at the area where symbol images such as a bar code and a two-dimensional code are printed as ink characters, there is a possibility of the appropriate reading of the symbol images being hindered. Besides, a bar code and a two-dimensional code have predetermined blank areas (quiet zones) for reading the same on the upper/lower and left/right sides thereof. Therefore, even if symbol images and braille characters are not overlapped with each other, there is also a possibility of the appropriate reading of the symbol images being hindered.